MLB: Yankees Girardi Not Happy with Red Sox, Bryce Harper and More

They call it “The best rivalry in all of sports, the New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox.” I call it, the battle of $380 million worth of players. Whatever you want to call the matchup, it happens 18 times every year and often again in the playoffs, but the matchup never gets old and there’s always a storyline.

Boston continued its recent dominance last night with a 6-4 win, in front of a sellout crowd of 48,450 at Yankee Stadium. The Red Sox have now won six out of their last seven games against New York and pulled even with them for first place in the AL East. When teams play this often, you would things might get bland. Nope, not with these two teams and definitely not last night. As the weather heated up, there was a buzz in the air, and last night both the intensity and balls were flying.

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In the first inning, the Yankees’ Mark Teixeira was hit by a Jon Lester cutter on the inside of his right knee. Teixeira left the game in severe pain with a contusion, X-rays were negative, and he likely will miss Wednesday night’s game, according to Yankees manager Joe Girardi. But that wasn’t all Girardi had to say. The Yankees skipper didn’t like David Ortiz’s bat flip after his majestic two-run homer in the fifth inning after Yankees pitcher Hector Noesi had thrown the previous pitch at Ortiz’s legs but missed. “I didn’t care for it,’’ Girardi said.

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After the game Big Papi responded. “That’s Papi style,’’ said Ortiz. “It’s not the first time and it’s not my last one. I’m a home run hitter. It’s not like I do it all the time. What can I tell you? Just another homer for Papi.’’

Was Noesi retaliating for Lester hitting Teixeira? We’ll never know, but with the Yankees losing at the time and Adrian Gonzalez at first base with one out, you wouldn’t think that would be the time to do it.

It will be interesting to see if players get thrown at during the remainder of the series. Given the fact that I don’t have to stand in the box myself, I’m kinda hoping they do.

Bryce Harper Blows Kiss at Pitcher After Hitting Home Run

Ok, here’s the deal. Harper took his time leaving the batter’s box admiring his 14th home run of the season and then blew a kiss to Zachary Neal, the opposing pitcher after rounding third base.

Harper now needs to get drilled square in the back the next time these two face each other so he can learn how this works. After that, everyone can move on. He’s going to be a great hitter, but he’s going to have to learn some respect for his peers and the game. If I were Harper, the next time I played Class A Hagerstown, I’d wear some padding.

Aramis Ramirez Refuses To Drop His No Trade Clause

Given the Chicago Cubs are 12 ½ games back in the National League Central, it’s logical to see why they would want to trade third baseman Aramis Ramirez. The Chicago Tribune reports that the agent for Ramirez, who is in the final year of a five-year, $75 million deal, says his client won’t drop his no-trade clause. The Cubs have an option for Ramirez for next season that’s’ worth $15 million.

“He doesn’t even want to take a trade,” said the agent, Paul Kinzer, according to the paper. “He took less years and less money to stay in Chicago (in 2006), so that is definitely his first option. Aramis has a full no-trade clause, so he doesn’t want to go anywhere. He’s a 10-and-5 guy and I don’t think he’ll go anywhere. We will have to see when it comes to that.”

HOGWASH says this writer; this is just a ploy by Ramirez and his agent to get the Cubs to work out a deal where the acquiring team has to pick up his $15 million option for next year.

Random Musings

It’s a bloodlines thing. The Chicago Cubs used their 7th round pick in the 2011 MLB draft to take high school first baseman, Trevor Gretzky, son of NHL legend, Wayne Gretzky and then used their 11th round pick on center fielder Shawon Dunston Jr., son of, that’s right you guessed it, former All Star Cubs shortstop, Shawon Dunston. I’m guessing that Gretzky can hit the low pitch and Dunston has a strong arm…….

The founder and former owner of MC3 Sports Media, Mike Cardano is the Sr. Business Administrator for RotoExperts and the Executive Director here at TheXLog.com. You may email Mike @ michael.cardano@rotoexperts.com or follow him on Twitter @MikeCardano